Do you know what a wiki is? If you already do, you’re probably a geek or know one. But it’s not too late to learn about it… the phenomenon has only just begun…

According to its inventor, Ward Cunningham :

A “wiki” is a collection of web pages that can be edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere.

As the official site – Wiki Wiki Web – clarifies, “Wiki-wiki” means “quick” in the Hawaiian language. If you’re just in the mood to test out the Wiki software, you are encouraged to play in the Wiki Wiki Sandbox.

There is no username or password required to edit a wiki page, and any one is free to add/delete/modify its contents. But the technology does sport a few useful tools like RecentChanges, BackLinks and RecentEdits that make it a user-friendly and meaningful experience.

What good can such a technology do, you ask? Well, the most obvious application is in the arena of collaborative work.

IBM’s Collaborative User Experience Research Group has recently posted a preliminary report (‘history flow’) on what it calls “visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors”; using wikis, of course. Future applications may include a wide range of uses from simple online discussion forums to User Acceptance Testing environments where clients can edit the work submitted by their agencies with minimum effort ! The possibilities are only just emerging.

So keep a look out for the growing popularity of this simple idea. And, if you’re worried that some day, some one will simply delete all the wiki pages out there, the official WikiWikiWeb site offers some hope : There are too many Wiki writers and not enough Wiki erasers out there !